A Lily Forged in Fire
by AW Science Geek
Summary: If Voldemort had listened to Severus Snape and kept Lily Potter alive... Series of one-shots. AU. Rated M for torture. Trigger warning - suicide.
1. Numb

Numb

"Lily, take Harry and go! It's him! Go! Run! I'll hold him off -" she heard James cry as she stumbled up the stairs, slamming the door to Harry's room and locking it behind her.

The door was blasted open, and Lily frantically blocked her only child from the monster in front of her. A few of the splinters from the door had embedded themselves into her jumper. Tears were flowing down her face freely, sobs racking her chest. Harry, her sweet, sweet Harry, was wailing behind her. He sensed his mother's distress, and for good reason, too.

"Move aside, you stupid girl," the cloaked figure hissed.

"Not Harry, please no, take me, kill me instead -" Lily pleaded, supporting her entire weight on the edge of Harry's crib.

"Filthy mudblood bitch," Voldemort hissed. Out of patience, he blasted her with the same spell that had taken out the door. Lily was thrown backwards, smashing her head on the corner of Harry's nappie-changing station. "You're lucky that someone of _relative_ importance to me has requested your survival," he spat at her. "I'll never understand how he can look at you with anything but disgust." The entire room shifted out of focused, blurry. Darkness crept at the edges of her vision.

Not blurry enough, however, for Lily to miss the blindingly green light that hit her wailing infant straight on.

" _NOOOO!_ " Lily screamed, blackness finally enveloping her.

* * *

She vaguely recalled being shifted about, a scent enveloping her that was familiar, but from years past. It couldn't be.

" _Thank Merlin, thank Merlin. You're safe… you're s-safe_ ," the low baritone had repeated, over and over again.

She fell back into unconsciousness.

* * *

"YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO PROTECT THEM!" a voice yelled, hoarse and raw. Remus. Lily shot up, eyes watering as she tried to find her bearings. She was in a bed, with sheets and a few blankets drawn around her. Her head hurt, her neck and back too. She shifted slightly, yelping in pain as her body protested.

"Remus-" another voice began, but was cut off.

"THEY'RE DEAD! THAT FUCKING TRAITOR! I'LL KILL HIM! I'LL KILL YOU! THEY WERE UNDER YOUR PROTECTION!" Remus shouted again. A loud crash, probably broken glass, followed his howling declaration.

"Sirius is being thrown into Azkaban as we speak," Dumbledore, she finally decided the voice belonged to, said in that nauseatingly solemn and calm voice.

It all came flooding back.

"Oh god," Lily sobbed, tears springing from her tired and worn eyes.

James, her husband.

 _Harry_. Her sweet, sweet boy. The true love of her life.

She would have given anything, _anything_ to have died with them.

Had Dumbledore just said-

"NO!" Lily screeched, and Remus and Dumbledore burst into her room. Or rather, the room that was currently housing her bruised and battered body.

"Lily, oh Lily," Remus came to her side, dried tear streaks aging his face by years.

"Sirius-" she whispered.

Remus's eyes hardened. "He's in Azkaban. Where he'll rot for the rest of his god-forsaken life."

"No," Lily croaked, her voice dry. Dumbledore frowned, conjuring a glass and filling it with water. She accepted it gratefully, sipping slowly.

"It wasn't Sirius," she finally got out. "He wasn't secret keeper. It was Peter."

Remus looked at her sharply, astounded. " _Peter_?" he asked, his voice deadly. "He's dead. All that's left is a finger. Sirius blasted him and about twenty other muggles to - oh fuck."

"It wasn't Sirius," Lily insisted, shaking her head. "Peter was secret keeper. He's the bastard who b-betrayed us."

Dumbledore quickly left the room with this new information, intending to revoke Sirius's impending imprisonment and demand at least a trial.

"Oh god Lily," Remus whispered, gripping her hand tightly.

A fresh wave of tears flooded her eyes, and she let them fall.

An hour or so later after clutching to Remus's shabby shirt, Lily could cry no more.

She was numb.

And now, she had nothing to lose.


	2. Seduction

Seduction

Remus didn't recognize this Lily.

He hadn't seen her for a year. He had left the bedroom for five minutes to use the loo, and when he returned, he was greeted with an empty set of ruffled sheets. Stained with her blood.

He had lost everything. Sirius eventually was cleared; after checking his wand, there was no indication he had cast the spell at all. But the two of them… they were alone. They were all that was left of the marauders. Everyone else was dead, missing, or a fucking traitor.

But when Lily appeared at the doorstep of 12 Grimmauld Place over a year after she had first disappeared that horrible night, he could hardly piece two and two together.

This wasn't Lily.

This was a hardened, dark, emotionless woman. Her once flaming red hair had been sliced short into a pixie cut; her once intelligent and loving green eyes had become flat and malicious; her once fair skin was now mottled with scars and burns.

"Lily?" Remus asked softly.

She eyed him. For a second, her gaze almost softened, but it was gone so quickly he almost thought he had imagined it.

Remus sighed. "I have to ask you a question. For security purposes."

She didn't nod, or even indicate that she had even heard him. She just stared.

It was unnerving.

"When did James Potter finally win your affection?" he asked. She flinched, ever so slightly, at the mention of James.

"When he stopped Oberon Greengrass, a Slytherin of all people, from jumping off the Astronomy Tower," Lily replied with almost no emotion. Her melodic, light voice had disappeared, now dry and gruff.

Remus stepped back to let her in. She brushed past him without another word.

"Lily?" he heard Sirius intake a sharp breath. "Merlin, Lils, is it really you?"

A jerky nod, before she collapsed into a chair, trembling.

"God Lily, what's happened? Where have you been?" Remus asked as he rushed to her side. He took her hand, marvelling in its roughness and callouses when it had been so soft and supple as she cupped his cheek whenever he had had a particularly bad day. He moved to unravel the heavy travelling cloak from her shoulders, gasping at the ugly knife wound on her left forearm.

 _Mudblood_ it read.

"Who did this to you?" Sirius asked sharply, brandishing his wand. "I'll _kill_ them, and this time, _for real_."

"A gift from Bellatrix Lestrange. She's dead," Lily croaked out in an emotionless tone.

Sirius was silent after that, his wand arm dropping to his side.

"Good," is all Remus could manage.

"I've been travelling. Learning the dark arts." She rolled her eyes as she was interrupted with "But!" and "Lily!"

"Know your fucking enemy," she growled. "You want to know why Voldemort can't die? He has _horcruxes._ "

"What the hell are those?" Sirius questioned.

"Pieces of your soul, stored away so you can be resurrected," Lily answered.

"Fuck, Lily," Remus ran his fingers through his hair, further messing it up. It reminded her of James, a little, before the memory and pain subsided into nothing. "How did you find this out?"

She turned to face him, head on. Flat green eyes glared into hesitant, wary brown ones.

"I made a few myself."

"How?" Sirius asked, oblivious to the gravity of her admission. Remus collapsed into another chair, sweating.

"You have to kill people to rip your soul apart," Remus replied for her.

"No," Sirius backed away from Lily.

Though this wasn't really Lily, was it?

"What's your plan?" Remus asked sharply. She raised an eyebrow.

"Well you wouldn't just randomly show up a year later after spending so much time learning the dark arts if you hadn't reached a point. An endpoint," Remus deduced. "A game plan to finally take him down."

Lily's eyes twinkled slightly, the way they had always done whenever he had said something particularly intelligent that made her proud of him. But again, it disappeared in the blink of an eye. Remus was wondering if he hadn't been projecting the old Lily onto this new, hardened shell of Lily. A Lily forged in fire.

"Yes, I have a plan. I've already begun phase one."

"What's phase one?" Sirius asked hesitantly, not really sure if he wanted to know.

"Seducing Severus Snape."


	3. Checkmate

Checkmate

She had finally come to him. After all of these years… all of the pain, the suffering, the bullying, the unforgivingness.

Lily was finally his.

That had solidified the deal for Severus. One man had kept his word, and the other hadn't. He never spoke to Dumbledore again. If he ever saw Dumbledore on the battlefield, he wouldn't hesitate to kill him. His loyalty had been fortified with the Dark Lord. The Dark Lord have given him the greatest gift at all.

The Dark Lord had given him Lily.

She had changed, though, but he took it all in stride. No one could lose their husband - _former_ , he reminded himself as his temper flared. _Dead_ , too - and be okay. No one could lose their _child_ and be okay.

Ultimately, it had brought him Lily. She was different. Colder. Harder. More ruthless. But she was still his beautiful angel. The only thing that set him straight. He was surprised when she had shown up to his door at Spinner's End, forgiving him for a word that really meant nothing. There was the winning side, and the losing side. Severus had been smart, she admitted. He knew which side to be on in order to survive. And she had nowhere else to go.

So he had taken her in. Fed her. Looked after her. He taught her the basic dark arts, enough to protect her should she ever be threatened. He staked his claim on her, however, in front of the hordes of Death Eaters at the Dark Lord's beck and call. She was untouchable. Now that Bellatrix Lestrange was dead, that left only Severus and Lucius Malfoy as his next right hand attendants. He would protect her.

There were no more things like _principles_ or _morals_. Those luxuries had long flitted away when Lily had come into danger. She had realized that, too. It was kill, or be killed. It was one side, or the other. It was life, or death.

And she had married him! Severus glanced proudly at the ring that adorned her left hand, a black snake that slithered over the palm of her hand and back to her fourth finger if she stroked it. Lucius had tripped up slightly, bungling a mission in the Ministry that was only saved by Severus's quick thinking. Lucius owed him a life debt. Lucius had fallen out of favor. Severus was now the Dark Lord's most trusted lieutenant. He was flying high, and nothing could bring him down.

She had tugged on his hair roughly as she had given him a goodbye kiss before leaving to run errands for the house. She had whispered in his ear that she would be purchasing a muggle pregnancy test… just in case. Severus felt giddy. Finally, everything was going right for him.

Suddenly pain seared his left arm, leaving him gasping for breath as he fell to the floor and writhed in pain. He watched through his watering eyes as the Dark Mark, so proud against his pale skin, burned as it disintegrated, leaving a horrible gray welt. His eyes widened. That could only mean-

And then he was flying into the bookshelves behind him, immobilised. His eyes darted around the room, finally landing on Lily. He relaxed, the tension fleeing as he watched his wife.

"Lily, my love, what are you-" Severus was cut off.

" _Silencio!_ " Lily shouted, one of the only mud-muggleborns left alive and with permission from the Dark Lord himself to keep her wand. His eyes widened. There was a fury in her bright green eyes that he had never been on the receiving end before. Not even when he had called her a mudblood.

"He's _dead_ , can you feel it?" Lily grinned evilly, her eyes glittering. Something in her had snapped. She was broken, her taut strings finally cut. "I hope it _burned_ you Sev. I hope you were on the floor, _writhing_ in pain. You were, weren't you?" she chuckled. "I saw it happen to everyone else. Everyone else is dead. Except for Malfoy. He was always a slippery one. He'll get his due soon."

Severus shook his head, bewildered at her sudden change. He desperately tried Legilimency on her, to send a thought to her. _What are you doing, love?_

Her Occlumency shields were at an all time high, though, and he found no purchase on the steel walls she had enforced herself with.

"Oh Sev," she snickered. "You were always so naive when it came to me. Shall I explain it clearly so your poor mind can process it? The Dark Lord, Voldemort, Tom Riddle, whatever the fuck his name is, is DEAD. I killed him. Well, rather, you did. If there are any stray Death Eaters about, you'll be at the top of their hit list. Too bad for them though, since I've gotten to you first.

"I'm sorry, am I confusing you?" she hissed as she saw the confusion evident in his eyes. "I grabbed a bit of your hair this morning, completed my polyjuice potion, strode into the largest Death Eater meeting of the last decade, and promptly offed him. It was a little easier now that his horcruxes are gone. That took the last few years to narrow objects down. Dumbledore was a great help, you know. Until you _killed him_ ," she snapped, and then regripped her wand.

" _Sectumsempra,_ " she cast, opening up his shoulder. Severus's lips parted in a silent scream, and she revelled in his pain. "I thought I'd open the program with your favorite spell. It's quite beautiful, isn't it? The way the red immediately soaks your robes? The way almost no one knows the counter curse? Quite deadly," Lily tsked as she wordlessly _Crucio-ed_ his stomach, dropping it lower and lower until Severus had bitten his tongue bloody.

"I suppose I'm supposed to give a melodramatic monologue about _why_ I'm doing the cruel things I am. Cruel, hmm. That's not an adjective that I used to describe myself with, but times change. People die. Oh that's right, my _husband_ and my _child_ , who _you_ could have very well saved with a word to your precious leader or without words about the fucking prophecy!"

Severus was about to pass out from the blood loss, but even in his oxygen-deprived state he could see the crazed look in her eyes.

"I'd always wanted a child, you knew that right? When we would spend our summers under the willow tree, I'd rave to you about how nice it would be to have someone completely love you without reservations. Without jealousy, like dear old Petunia, or without arrogant dickheadedness, like my late husband. My _real_ husband," she emphasized. " _You_ took that away from me. But you gave that to me, too."

She held out a muggle pregnancy test. It was positive.

"Too bad I never wanted _your child_ ," she hissed, numbing herself before she turned her own wand on her womb.

"Oh that's right, you took an Unbreakable Vow to protect me, hmm? When I die, you die, too. But first-"

She promptly cut out her own uterus, the blood spattering Severus's face. She did so emotionlessly - the numbing spell was only in effect so she could continue her work. When she had a gaping hole in herself, she finally turned her wand on him.

"My blood. Not so muddy, is it?" she grinned, before killing with a flick of the wrist.

"Checkmate," she grinned. The same flick was then pointed at herself, and all was dark.

 **AN: Hello followers! This was a plot bunny that popped up into my head recently, and I was able to churn it out within a couple of hours to get it to you. MMM is going a little bit slower, so I wanted to publish something for you guys. Please leave a review! This is my first time writing Dark!Lily, so I'd appreciate your thoughts! It's also my first series of one-shots. Comments? Drop a review below!**


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